NEW MUSIC: Life in a Blender and Leland Sundries

Booored? Looking for something a little different? These recent albums by Life in a Blender and Leland Sundries might fit the bill.

Pete Chianca

Booored? Looking for something a little different? These two recent albums might fit the bill.

Life in a Blender, “We Already Have Birds That Sing” (Fang Records) This NYC-based “chamber pop” band is aptly named: Their sound seems to blend vestiges of acts as diverse as Tom Waits, Cake, They Might Be Giants, Mojo Nixon and quite possibly Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. If that sounds like an odd mix, you’re right -- but darned if it doesn’t work, as both eclectic oddball rock and winking satire.

The best tracks are the ones where bandleader Don Rauf affects an off-kilter growl that suits the offbeat material. Among these are “Tongue-Cut Sparrow,” a seedy story of a 1950s burlesque dancer that Rauf says mirrors the band’s own 25-year career, and “Shards,” a Talking Heads-style tour through a recluse’s apartment: “The pencil shavings, the sourballs, the paper clip dispenser … They cheer me up,” he declares to swinging ska horns.

Songs about Frankenstein (“Frankenstein Cannot Be Stopped”), Cape Cod romance (“Falmouth”) and setting out to sea in a leaky boat (“To Sea in a Sieve”) are equally quirky and all oddly moving. LISTEN TO: “Good Answer,” a shouting smackdown of pop-culture conformity.

Leland Sundries, “Live at the Creamery” (L'Echiquier Records) We’re still waiting for a full-length album, but until then this six-track live set -- well, eight tracks if you include bandleader Nick Loss-Eaton’s between-song comic monologues -- makes for a fine placeholder. It helps that it kicks off with the stomping new track “Maps of the West,” which stands among their best. The other songs, mostly culled from their two EPs, provide a good showcase for the Brooklyn band’s literate, steam-punky alterna-folk.

In particular, “Airstream Transmission” offers a gruffer, even moodier take on the studio version from 2012’s “The Foundry,” owing primarily to Loss-Eaton’s laconic Lou Reed-by-way-of-Leonard Cohen drawl and downright spooky harmonica. And “Roller Derby Queen,” a live version of the band’s vinyl single from that same year, is raw rockabilly that suggests Leland Sundries hasn’t even yet begun to swing. LISTEN TO: “Maps of the West,” a harmonica- and banjo-laden road song.